MSM 247: ISTE 2013, Be a better person and Thumb Wrestling.

Presented in collaboration with the Association for Middle Level Education.

Jokes You Can Use:

There are two cows out in a field in Britain. One cow turns to the other and asks, “Are you worried about this Mad Cow disease?” The other cow responds, “Nope.” The first cow exclaims, “How can you say that? Cows all over England are getting it. I’m scared stiff!” The other cow just looks at him and says, “Mad Cow disease, why should I be worried? I’m a helicopter.”

 

Q: What do you call a blind deer?

A: A no-eyed deer (say it out loud)

Q: What do you call a blind deer with no legs?

A: A still no-eyed deer.

Two eggs, a sausage, and a pancake walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Sorry, we don’t serve breakfast.”

Eileen Award:

• Twitter: Chelsy Hooper, Dianne Krause, Emily Runyan, Kelly Dumont, Matt Graves, Bob Krause, Mark Levine, Gayle Andrews

• Facebook: Raymond Porten

 

Advisory:

 

9 Ways To Be A Better Person

1. Be Willing To Change

2. Stop Making Excuses

3. Stop Being Angry

4. Be A Role Model

5. Forgive Someone

6. Listen To People

7. Be Honest

8. Do Something You Don’t Want To

9. Surprise Someone Special

 

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/9-ways-better-person.html

 

Middle School Science Minute

by Dave Bydlowski (k12science or davidbydlowski@mac.com)

Safety Contracts

I was recently reading “The NSTA Ready-Reference Guide to Safer Science, Volume 2,” written by Ken Roy.  This book is available in the National Science Teachers Association’s online store at:

http://nsta.org/store

In this podcast, I share Ken’s response to the following question:

“What can I do if a parent refuses to sign the science laboratory safety acknowledgement form?”

 

From the Twitterverse:

 

Resources:

PhotoFilmStrip

PhotoFilmStrip creates movie serial output possibilities for VCD, SVCD, DVD up to FULL-HD. Creates animated slideshows.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/photostoryx/

THE GIFT OF DOUBT

Albert O. Hirschman and the power of failure.

BY MALCOLM GLADWELL

 

In the mid-nineteenth century, work began on a crucial section of the railway line connecting Boston to the Hudson River.

James Hayward, one of New England’s leading railroad engineers, estimated that penetrating the Hoosac would cost, at most, a very manageable two million dollars.

Everyone was wrong. Digging through the Hoosac turned out to be a nightmare. The project cost more than ten times the budgeted estimate.

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2013/06/24/130624crbo_books_gladwell

Web Spotlight:

Nine Things Educators Need to Know About the Brain

The human brain wasn’t designed for industrial education.

1. The brain is a social organ.

Our brains require stimulation and connection to survive and thrive.

From a neurobiological perspective, the position of the teacher is very similar to that of the parent in building the child’s brain.

2. We have two brains.

Most tasks, though, involve contributions from both hemispheres. So, it is important to understand how to engage both in the classroom context.

3. Early learning is powerful.

4. Conscious awareness and unconscious processing occur at different speeds, often simultaneously.

Because of this, it is especially important to teach students to question their assumptions and the possible influences of past experiences and unconscious biases on their feelings and beliefs.

5. The mind, brain, and body are interwoven.

6. The brain has a short attention span and needs repetition and multiple-channel processing for deeper learning to occur.

7. Fear and stress impair learning.

Evolution has shaped our brains to err on the side of caution and to trigger fear whenever it might be remotely useful.

Success in school depends upon a student’s ability to somehow decrease their stress.

8. We analyze others but not ourselves: the primacy of projection.

Simple exercises that guide students to examine what and how what they think and feel about others may be true for themselves can open a window of self-awareness, empathy, and insight.

9. Learning is enhanced by emphasizing the big picture—and then allowing students to discover the details for themselves.

When problems are represented at higher levels of abstraction, learning can be integrated into larger schemas that enhance memory, learning, and cognitive flexibility.

http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/nine_things_educators_need_to_know_about_the_brain

 

HOW DO YOU KEEP PEOPLE ENGAGED?

Ownership. Give them ownership.

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/engagement/

 

Half-Baked Ideas . . .

Why did I want a Microsoft Surface RT? Do I still want it?

ISTE 2013 Stuff:

ISTE Keynote 2013

New branding visuals.

Launch video.

LOL the tablet icon for the presentation was a Surface tablet!

T-shirt launch.

 

Introduction of Jane McGonigal

Gamification

“Reality is Broken:  Why games make us better and how they change the world.” title of book.

Game designers are essentially fun engineers.

 

In 20 minutes we’re going to play her favorite game.  🙂

Good News:  1 Billion Gamers worldwide

Spend an hour a day on a device playing a game.

This is good news.  Really.

These 1 billion gamers make up a unique network.

Can invent.

    “I don’t think education is about centralized instruction anymore.  Rather, it is the process of establishing oneself as a node in a broad network of distributed creativity.”  Joi Ito, Director of MIT Media Lab

Perception that games are a waste of time:

300 million minutes a day playing Angry Birds (400,000 years of effort)

170 hours a year per player or 1 month of full time work every year.  Call of Duty

1 in 4 players called in sick to stay home and play Call of Duty on launch day.

71 % of U.S. workers are not engaged. in the workplace.  Gallup 2012

Unengaged workers cost U.S. companies $300 billion dollars.

The longer you stay in school, the less engaged you become.

76% in Elementary

61% in middle school

44% in High School find pleasure and purpose in school.

Most college students spend more hours playing video games than in a classroom.

7 billion hours  a week . . . of Maximum Engagement.

Games being played.

100 million hours of collective effort to make Wikipedia

3 weeks of Angry Birds game play

7 days of Call of Duty game play.

Imagine making a new Wikipedia every three days.

In the U.l 99% of boys under 18 and 94% of girls play regularly 13 to 18 year olds

92% of two-year olds play games.

“It’s inevitable.  Soon, we’ll all be gamers.”

Why are these 7 billion hours going to gaming?

Single most important thing gamers want:

10 positive emotions

10.  Joy

 9.  Relief

 8. Love

 7.  Surprise

 6.  Pride

 5.  Curiosity

 4.  Excitement

 3.  Awe and Wonder

 2.  Contentment

 1.  Creativity

Gamers are Super-Empowered Hopeful Individuals.

Magic 3:1 ratio.  Positive to negative emotions.

Limit of 12:1 positive emotions to negative emotions.  If you go above this, people around you will hate you.  LOL

Portrait series of photos of people playing games.

1.  Relish

2.  Fierce determination.

3.  Grit/Perseverance

4.  Flow Face

Happiest when we’re doing something challenging, but we have the skills for it.

5.  Epic gamer

6.  Amazement face

Gamers fail 80% of the time.

“The opposite of play isn’t work – it’s depression.”

Brain imaging shows the lighting up of neurons as people play games.

Caudate area lights up.  Same areas as drugs.  Just not for the same reasons.

Thalamus lights up.

Hippocampus lights up.

If this area lights up, the more likely the brain is to remember new information.

The more areas lit up, the more likely to accomplish a goal.

Massive Multi-player Thumb Wrestling

3-4 thumbs in a node and then play Thumb Wars.

Set a new high score for people playing thumb wars.  LOL

Two things close to her heart:

1.  Student Aspirations:

43% I plan to start my own business

42%  I will invent something that changes the world.

These two are the least positive aspirations that students tell teachers schools teach

Game:  Evoke:  If you have a problem, and you can’t solve it alone, evoke it.”  African proverb.

Designed to engage people in South Africa.

Video:  Evoke:  Solving the world’s greatest problems.

Launched in March of 2010.

10 missions in 10 weeks.

“A crash course in changing the world.”

www.urgentevoke.com  www.urgentevoke.com

Free job training in changing the future.

Create your Origin Story:  Students had to answer a qustion about themselves.

Mission every week.  (10 missions, 10 weeks)

Evoke Powers:  Gained by posting up to the web the various media evidence of your real world activities.

If you complete the 10 missions in 10 weeks, you get a World Bank certification to put on a resume.

In 10 weeks, 19,893 students in >130 countries.

50 new businesses launched from this game.

LAA Libraries build an infrastructure of Empowerment.

Franchising libraries. Sustainability assistance is provided through brainstorming.

Game:  New York Public Library

Student aspirations:  82% of Americans want to someday write a book.

Video Game Trailer:  May 20, 2011 launch date.

Find the Future:  www.nypl.org/game

10,000 applicants for 500 spots.  Lockin until they write a book.

There’s an app that would help them find these artifacts and catalog them.

Scan a barcode that they had found the item that was one of the 100.

This could be used for a trip to Greenfield village.

How did the object change the world?

e.g. Declaration of Independence:  How did this change the world?  Make your own and post it online.

1184 stories of their vision for the future.

500 authors

Lined up at 6 a.m. to hand sign the finished book.

“100 Ways to Make History Volume 1”

If you remember one thing from today:  10 Positive Emotions and look for ways to provoke them in the classroom.